Wireless communication devices have recently evolved from a technology used by an elite segment of the population to a technology that is used by the masses. Worldwide, the number of wireless communication device users has reached a staggering number and is growing all of the time. In the near future, it is envisioned that almost everyone will own or use some sort of wireless communication device that is capable of performing a variety of functions. In addition to traditional wireless communication devices, many different types of portable electronic devices are in use today. In particular, notebook computers, palm-top computers, and personal digital assistants (PDA) are commonplace.
Users of wireless telephones and other wireless devices have recently been able to place a phone call to an automated system to request information by speaking to a basic automated speech recognition system. The basic automated speech recognition system typically responds to the caller using text-to-speech and/or recorded speech prompts. This method of information delivery is cumbersome and challenging for the caller as well as very time consuming, thereby causing callers unnecessary frustration. In some cases, the system returns too much information and the caller must listen to the entire response in order to get the information they want. In other systems the caller must verbally navigate through a deep hierarchy of prompts to get to the specific piece of information they seek.
Wireless terminal users may receive services through their respective wireless terminals by calling an automated or operator-assisted service. These services may respond to the caller by allowing the user to navigate through a menu of items that are presented by the automated operator. With the advent of multi-modal messaging, users can now receive messages in a multiple variety of formats. However, some of these formats can more easily/effectively be comprehended in the form of human speech rather than text.
As such, a need exists for a method of enabling the caller to reply via text to the text message sent by the system in order to initiate a phone call to the wireless terminal during which the information in the message, or additional information, is read aloud to the caller.